Eastern Promises (2007) Film

The film opens with a murder in a barber shop. Later, Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), a midwife at a London hospital, finds a Russian-language diary on the body of Tatiana, a fourteen-year-old girl who dies in childbirth. She also finds a card for the Trans-Siberian restaurant, which is owned by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a boss in the Russian Mafia or vory v zakone ("thieves in law"). Anna sets out to track down the girl's family so that she can find a home for the dead mother's baby girl. Anna’s mother Helen (Sinéad Cusack) does not discourage her, but Anna’s Russian-uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski), whom Anna asks for help with translation of the diary, urges caution. Through Semyon and her uncle, Anna comes to learn that Semyon and his bumbling and unstable son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), had abused Tatiana and forced her into prostitution, and that Semyon had raped the girl.

Kirill's driver is the Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen), who also serves as the family's "undertaker", dumping dead bodies in the River Thames. Nikolai's star rises within the vory, due in part to Nikolai's protection of Kirill, who had authorized a hit on a rival Chechen vory leader. The hit was not approved by Semyon and was ill-advised, with the Chechen's brothers coming to England to seek vengeance. Semyon, afraid for his son's safety, hatches a plan. Semyon arranges to give "Kirill" up to the Chechens, which involves making Nikolai a Lieutenant in the vory, the same rank as Kirill, so he gets the same distinctive tattoos (stars over the left and right side of his chest and near both knees). A meeting is arranged at Finsbury steam baths, and the Chechens are told that the tattooed Nikolai is actually Kirill. The Chechens attack Nikolai with knives, but Nikolai is able to kill them both. However, Nikolai is seriously wounded during the fight and is admitted to the hospital where Anna works.

Anna asks Nikolai where her missing uncle Stepan is. Nikolai says he sent Stepan to a luxury hotel in Edinburgh to keep him safe after he read Tatiana's diary. Anna discovers that Kirill has kidnapped the baby, to prevent her being evidence in a statutory rape case against Semyon. Anna and Nikolai go to the Thames and find Kirill with the baby, still alive, struggling with his conscience. Nikolai talks Kirill into giving Anna the baby and allying with Nikolai against Semyon.

It is revealed near the end of the film that Nikolai is actually an officer of the Russian Security Services (FSB) and a Scotland Yard informer on the Russian mafia in London as part of his undercover duties. Nikolai was able to read Tatiana's diary before Semyon destroyed it, and develops a plan to have Semyon arrested and convicted for Tatiana's rape, making Kirill the most powerful member of the London branch of the mob, but with Nikolai as the power behind the throne. The plan works, with Anna gaining custody of the baby and Nikolai eventually becoming the London vory crime boss.